it's the last stop for the X29 express bus from Coney Island to Manhattan, the X51 from Flushing to midtown and dozens of other buses making their final runs Friday.

For years, the MTA has warned budget gaps would require service cuts, but the agency never followed through on the threats.

But this time, the ax is falling - and falling especially hard on bus riders who have depended on their routes for years. More than 100 local and express routes will be eliminated, operate with fewer hours or make fewer stops.

"I'm so depressed about it," Mariella Pallazzo, 40, said of the X51's demise. "It's going to be so inconvenient."

For a decade, Pallazzo, an administrative assistant, has traveled from eastern Queens to midtown by bus.

The trip takes about 35 minutes, she said, adding despondently that alternative combinations of local and express routes she tested took three times longer.

"The No. 7 train is so crowded and packed," she lamented. "I'm thinking of driving to work."